Local boxing hero Andre Ward adjusts the scale during the weigh-in session in Oakland, Calif. on Friday, Sept. 7, 2012, before his super middleweight championship bout against chalenger Chad Dawson Saturday night. less

Local boxing hero Andre Ward adjusts the scale during the weigh-in session in Oakland, Calif. on Friday, Sept. 7, 2012, before his super middleweight championship bout against chalenger Chad Dawson Saturday ... more

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Ward, Dawson fight for belt at Oracle

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Oakland's Andre Ward likes to say "they don't see me coming," but in this case he is wrong.

When the super middleweight champion defends his belt Saturday at Oakland's Oracle Arena against light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson, Dawson will have seen him coming from a long way away.

"I studied him for years," Dawson said. "I knew one day we would be fighting."

Dawson was willing to drop down from the 175-pound weight class to 168 to fight. And who knows, if Dawson had negotiated a little better, Ward might have come up to face him.

"I've been watching Chad for years, anticipating this fight," said Ward, whose walking-around weight is 180 pounds. "He's close to my weight class and in your gut, you know you're probably going to butt heads with this guy one day, and it's happening.

"We picked Chad because he's the best in his division and I'm the best in my division, and when's the last time two fighters in separate divisions met because they were the best?"

Between them, they are 56-1. Ward (25-0, 13 knockouts) won the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament with an easy win over Carl Froch in December. Dawson (31-1, 17 KO's) beat Bernard Hopkins in a rematch in April and then called out Ward after the fight, although that was for show because the two had nearly completed negotiations at that point.

"Look at the guys he's faced," Dawson said. "None of those guys can do what I can do in the ring. They're not slick, they're not tall, they don't have my reach and they're not as strong as me. He's going to have problems, problems he's never seen before."

Dawson, a southpaw, does have a 5 1/2-inch reach advantage (76 1/2 inches to Ward's 71). Ward has had a speed advantage on everyone he's fought so far and will try to get inside of Dawson's reach to do some damage.

Ward will not slug it out, as he smartly gets out of the way of big punches and is a tactician. He hasn't had a knockout in his last eight fights dating back to December 2008, and he bristles a bit whenever people say his fights are a little boring or that he doesn't get into wars with his opponents.

"I don't run around the ring; I feel like I fight and I am smart," Ward said. "Let the clamor be what it is. Sugar Ray Leonard didn't get his credit until he fought the wrong way against Roberto Duran in the first fight, and they finally said he had heart.

"Then he fought the right way the second time and he made the man quit."

Ward's trainer, Virgil Hunter, calls critical boxing fans and reporters "cowards," because they want blood. "They would not dare step into a boxing ring," he said.

"There's no back-stepping with Andre, no running," promoter Dan Goossen said. "Does that mean he sticks his chin out? No. Because he is smart, he is a great fighter that way. His best defense is his offense."

Dawson is also a technical fighter who has no problems being cautious. He hasn't had a knockout in his last eight fights, dating back to September 2007.

"No matter what people say, I think it'll be an explosive fight," Dawson said. "I think it'll be a fight that brings the best out of both of us."

Ward almost went so far as to blame mixed martial arts for what's happened to boxing. He says there's no longer an appreciation for the art of the sport.

"If it's not blood and guts, people are told they got ripped off," Ward said. "This fight has two of the highest-skilled guys in the sport of boxing. I think it will be a highly entertaining fight."

Tale of the tape

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